Chapter 31: The Woman Wearing a Veil

Rueben crashed down on the ground or the surface of the lake or whatever and coughed out blood, he slowly stood up and looked at the monster infront of him. Dead and mangled, mutilated into a mess of flesh that most would not understand.

Rueben looked at his leg that was bitten off and his arm that was chewed up and crawled towards the mess and scooped up some blood.

He looked at the foul blood on his hands and drank it all, he felt his body heal as he grabbed some flesh and took a bite out of it. He could taste mix of bitter tomatoes as well as a mixture of salt, vinegar and some other seasonings. It was a mess of tastes that could make one choke out of their breathe.

Yet, Rueben calmly endured the taste and looked around the darkness.

He grabbed a cloth that resembled a robe and wore it, the clothes he was wearing had been torn to pieces and he couldn't continue to wear such a thing.

Looking at his new clothes that were just a robe that covered the upper part of his body, his torso, he grabbed a bone from the monster's corpse and swung it around, he felt he could use it as a weapon and walked away from the beast.

Just as he took 10 steps away, the monster suddenly started burning with green flames, he looked back in surprise and watched as the corpse burned.

He watched as it turned into ashes and spread to the darkness, the green flames slowly died down as it found that there was nothing left for it to burn.

Rueben looked at the scene, then turned his head to look at his side where a woman wearing a golden laced dress was standing with an umbrella above her. The umbrella was held by a man wearing a mask and seemed to be a butler or some kind.

Rueben studied her for a moment, then looked back at the dying flame and opened his mouth, "Is this the illusion you sent me? It seemed real."

The woman, who's face was hidden in a veil and from the large hat that she was wearing, she looked at him and opened her mouth to speak, "It is. I could not believe that someone like you can be so ruthless and brutal."

She looked at him face to face and smiled, "Not just to your opponents but to yourself too."

"…" Rueben stayed silent.

The green flame died out and Rueben immediately swung the bone like it was a club, the woman simply got embraced by the mask wearing man as he jumped back to dodge his attack.

Rueben followed the swing with a dash forward and swung the bone to the right side of the woman's face, which was simply blocked by the man with only his hand.

"Attacking me already? Right after your fight with that chimera of beasts? How ruthless.."

The woman chuckled as she watched Rueben try to hit her as the man wearing a mask simply carried her and dodged her, if she was about to hit, then the man would use his body to take the hit instead of her.

"My, your attacks are so strong. Sooner or later, this doll of mine would be destroyed by you."

Rueben could feel that every time he hit the man, he could feel that something was breaking.

He maneuvered to the side and managed to take the mask off from the man's face and he clicked his tongue.

It had a porcelain skin as if it was made of marbles, its eyes were empty, replaced with what seemed to be marble material eyes, its mouth and whole face was stiff and unmoving with no expressions and such. Just a cold and blank expression.

"A mannequin. First a doll, now this?"

The woman chuckled and watched as Rueben tried to hit her with his bone weapon.

Sensing the rising annoyance and frustration bottling up inside him, the woman laughed and said, "Did you really think that I'm just going to give you my memories? Especially memories about Mother?"

She looked at him with contempt in her eyes and continued, "No, I am not that easy or even as righteous. I'm not going to give away my memories for free just like what the others had done."

Rueben narrowed his eyes, "Yeah, it's a wonder why they gave me their memories. Did they want me to do something? To feel compassion or something?"

The woman chuckled as she was thrown in the air by the mannequin and was caught by two other mannequins, this time, they were more feminine and wore maid dresses.

She watched as Rueben broke off the porcelain arm of the mannequin and kicked it to the ground, followed by a massive blow on its head, breaking its head into tiny little pieces. Rueben then turned his attention to her and clicked his tongue.

"I don't want your memories."

The woman smiled and said, "And neither do I want yours. Judging by the way you act, you must have a pretty rough past like me. I don't want to be reminded of the past."

The woman was then softly put down by the two maids on a rocking chair. The maids then reached behind them and took out two kitchen knives each on their hands and guarded the woman tightly.

The woman sighed and let out a sad tone of voice, "After all, the past hurts."

Rueben stayed silent, not knowing what to say and walked towards her.

The woman suddenly chuckled and pointed at him, "Though, there are a few things I can use from the past." She pointed at him, then pointed it straight to his head and smiled, "You threw something at me. I'm petty, so I'll just throw you out of the life cycle. Sounds like a fair trade, no?"

Rueben jumped up, dodging the hands that suddenly came up from the still lake floor or whatever he was stepping on and rolled in the air.

The place he was just standing on had mannequins of both gender pushing themselves up. Clothes suddenly fell from the deep darkness and the mannequins started wearing them. They then took out knives, spatulas, scissors, spoons, forks from somewhere and started charging towards him.

Rueben dodged the incoming stab and grab its porcelain arm before pulling it and gave it a punch on the head, breaking its head into pieces. He then crouched down stabbed the mouth of two mannequins charging towards him with spoons on their hands and tore their head off.

Grabbing the weapons, he made use of their own weapons to kill them off one by one.

The woman was guarded by the two maids, who were now brewing and serving her tea.

She felt someone behind her, the beings softly caressed her cheeks on the inky skin of the being as she softly whispered, "Do not worry, mother. I won't let him disturb Sara from getting her true happiness."

Her eyes behind the veil glowed, "I will make sure that our family would be together again."

The being disappeared as the woman flicked her hand towards Rueben's direction. Countless mannequins started pushing themselves out of the lake and entered the battlefield. Rueben was forced to stay put as he fought waves upon waves of mannequins.